On the heels of Hurricane Sandy, some state and local leaders who have linked pollution in the Chesapeake Bay to the Conowingo Dam and sediment from up river decry state laws and taxes that they said don't address the mess.

"They want us to basically drain the pollutants out of the Chesapeake Bay with a teaspoon while we've got millions of gallons of water coming over the dam here, which is the primary source of pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay," said Richard Rothschild, a Republican and vice president of the Board of County Commissioners in Carroll County.

State and county elected officials said Maryland laws are putting a financial burden on residents to clean up the bay, but that the laws do nothing about the pollution from New York and Pennsylvania coming down the Susquehanna River.

"It's all coming down from Pennsylvania and New York, at this point, and for us to punish our citizens by imposing these new taxes is not a good thing," said Harford County Executive David Craig, a Republican.

"As we stand here today, the state of Maryland is actively requiring the counties to spend billions of dollars to clean up the lower part of the bay, but they're not addressing what's going on here," said Eastern Shore Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-District 36.

"What we're seeing here today is one of the biggest sources that's adding to the sediment, the nutrients and that's not being addressed. It's not being addressed in any of the legislation that's being passed," said Eastern Shore Delegate Stephen Hershey Jr., R-District 36.

A representative from a watermen's association said the sediment and pollution is killing the bay.

"Conowingo, the runoff from this flood will devastate the upper part of the bay again. Last spring, we had no rockfish hatch. Could it have come from water quality from (Hurricane) Lee? The worst-ever striped bass hatch," said Don Pierce, a waterman.

"There's a problem with the sediments behind the dam. In fact, we need to address that, and there's a study going on right now to look at what some of the options are. But to use that as an excuse to not implement the cleanup plans that Maryland has developed, we think is a complete distraction," she said.

In 2011, Hurricane Lee muddied the Chesapeake Bay as seen in a satellite photograph that depicted brown and murky water the length of the bay.